Leinster completes undefeated Pro14 season with final win over Ulster

Final Pro14: Leinster 27 Ulster 5

The Leinster Machine continues to produce victories and titles. The cast can change, with 53 players used and several of them moving since the start of Pro14 2019-20 51 weeks ago. But the records will show that there has never been a more dominant team in the history of this competition.

It was Leinster, and then there was the rest.

The 23rd made all 53 proud, and like outgoing Sean O’Brien lifting this trophy in Glasgow last May, in a nice touch it was Rob Kearney and Fergus McFadden who did it together this time.

A 17th win out of 17 games eclipsed the 10-game winning streak en route to the 2001-02 inaugural title and also completed a record seventh title and the first three straight games of the competition. Nor is there the slightest sign that they are calming down.

Like Munster in the semi-final here, Ulster had the recklessness to score first in the fifth minute, but then didn’t add another point in the final 75 minutes in what was another demonstration of Leinster’s super efficient defense as much as anything else. . .

The difference here was that Ulster at least had a chance, with a well-worked attempt when he spread the ball or looked to unload in traffic, either through Stuart McCloskey or his forwards, and asked Leinster’s defense questions. It was just that the Leinster defense invariably had all the answers.

The return of James Ryan and Josh van der Flier arguably injected even more line speed into their defense, which collectively devoured Ulster’s attack, and their presence certainly didn’t detract from the voracious work ethic.

Almost never committing more than one or two players in the break, and keeping two men in the backfield, after that initial concession, Leinster invariably kept 12 or 13 men on an impenetrable blue line.

Van der Flier was voted Man of the Match but, as in the semi-final, it could just as easily have been Caelan Doris, who was strong as an Ox on both sides of the ball, led the defensive effort with a phenomenal 19 tackles, and it was a deserved try scorer.

Although this was a significantly more ruthless performance than against Munster, Leinster was still not in his prime and, with the Saracens in mind, they were again penalized a bit too much for their own taste in the breakout.

Their lineout also worked seriously in the first half and, with the Ulster forwards repeatedly catching Jack Conan after the tackle, they were once again heavily penalized in the breakout.

Of course, there was no sense of the occasion, and certainly nothing like the room packed with frenzy for the Champions Cup quarter-finals here last March, when tickets sold out in an hour and 15,000 Ulster fans descended on Dublin. .

But as in that quarterfinal, Ulster roared out of the blocks. Stuart McCloskey, who enthusiastically clung to a punch from Conan, was the first to exploit space in the outer midfield channel with a heavy drag over the win line.

From recycling, Billy Burns fed Alan O’Connor in the middle of a three-man capsule and Leinster’s defense bought into the hoax. The lock threw the ball behind him and Tom O’Toole for James Hume to step into the ball, swerve away from desperate Ronan Kelleher and away from covering James Lowe before taking Hugo Keenan’s inning to score before the four minute mark. It was the talented 22-year-old’s second attempt in 20 appearances, but Burns missed the difficult conversion.

However, as with all champion teams, a recurring feature of Leinster’s games since the restart is how they respond to scoring by invariably scoring themselves. And so it was again.

It did not come immediately. Ulster made a couple of great defensive sets before Ross Byrne wrapped Robbie Henshaw and ran diagonally over the win line. Henshaw and Doris, with a superb hard line, took it further and, after some close shots, Jamison Gibson-Park used an upside play to put James Lowe over the top with a flat pass from the blind side. Byrne got a good leadership conversion.

Another feature of Leinster’s game is how they have been hitting the ball in midfield and kicking behind to invariably find the grass. Such Ringrose kick and fast line speed forced Burns to concede an attack shot, but Leinster’s lineout missed.

Doris’s strength in the jackal earned her a penalty against John Andrew, temporarily replacing Rob Herring, for failing to let go after Conan’s tackle. Then, having gone in front of his lineout twice, Leinster earned the option of two penalties, either to touch touch with the corner flag or take three points under the sticks, Garry Ringrose instructed Byrne to do the last.

Whereupon Ryan couldn’t focus on Ronan Kelleher’s pitch, and after a good exchange between McCloskey and Hume, Conan got caught in a ruck for the second time. Ulster went to the corner but signaled another great defensive set from Leinster, culminating with Andrew Porter showing his strength on the ball. It seemed easier to move a wall.

Still, it was Doris afterwards who couldn’t pull Kelleher’s shot. That she made four missed lineouts of her first six. It seemed to be a mix of launch, lift-off, and capture, but it was puzzling just how small Devin Toner was a target.

After Rob Lyttle recovered Alby Mathewson’s box kick over Lowe, Conan was trapped on the platform for the third time. Ulster moved up the line and again parried a shot on goal when Cian Healy got a ping for coming in from the side.

Once again, however, Leinster’s defensive maul kept up the advance and even as Ulster continued to lead hard two meters from the line, Leinster’s line speed and tackle execution drove Ulster back until Hume lost a little ball under Burns.

Leinster made one last throw, and rolled the dice, before the break. A good strike play got Lowe down the middle, but the attack ended with Hume snatching the ball from, of all, Doris.

However, at the restart, Sean Reidy knocked Ringrose off the ball and Byrne nailed a 43-meter penalty to make it a two-point game. Just a minute later, Leinster extended his lead to three touchdowns when Henshaw easily intercepted a Burns pass destined for Marcell Coetzee, a curiously restrained man, and ran under the posts untouched.

Dan McFarland had one last roll of the dice by presenting his bench, with six former Leinster players, before the hour mark. Meanwhile, Leinster, feeling better about themselves, deepened their reserve of strike plays, drawing Lowe twice on the first catcher when first Larmour nearly scored in the corner and then Ringrose failed to get a pass on goal.

Andrew Brace’s whistle dominated thereafter, continually penalizing the team with possession. Ten minutes to go, when Stockdale was penalized for continuing to crawl after the inning and Michael Lowry conceded an extra 10 meters, the Ulster hen was ready.

There was an air of inevitability to the next score as Leinster drifted away via single backs or close carries before Doris drove in tackles from Jordi Murphy and Ian Madigan to score between the posts and Johnny Sexton, in the fourth quarter. cameo, tapped on conversion.

For Leinster, the loot, but with the champions facing Saracens at home and Ulster at home to Toulouse in the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup, each of them will have to collect more next weekend.

Scoring sequence: 4 minutes Hume try 0-5; 13 minutes Lowe try, Byrne with 7-5; 26 minutes Byrne pen 10-5; (half time 10-5); 45 minutes Byrne pen 13-5; 46 minutes of Henshaw attempt, Byrne at 20-5; 72 minutes Doris tries, Sexton 27-5.

Leinster: Jordan Larmour, Hugo Keenan, Garry Ringrose (captain), James Lowe, Ross Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Cian Healy, Rónan Kelleher, Andrew Porter, Devin Toner, James Ryan, Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan. Replacements: Ed Byrne for Healy (53 minutes), James Tracy for Kelleher, Luke McGrath for Gibson-Park, Johnny Sexton for R Byrne (all 60 minutes), Michael Bent for Porter, Scott Fardy for Ryan (63 minutes), Rory O’Loughin for Ringrose (68 minutes), Will Connors for van der Flier (74 minutes).

Ulster: Michael Lowry, Rob Lyttle, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale, Billy Burns, Alby Mathewson; Eric O’Sullivan, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Iain Henderson (captain), Matthew Rea, Sean Reidy, Marcell Coetzee. Replacements: John Andrew for Herring (21 minutes), Jack McGrath for O’Sullivan, Sam Carter for Henderson, John Cooney for Mathewson, Nick Timoney for Coetzee (all 47 minutes), Ian Madigan for Burns (55 minutes), Marty Moore for O ‘ Toole, Jordi Murphy for Rea (both 56 minutes).

Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)